Why it works: Beef and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,669 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-ethylphenol, which smells must. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare a marinade by slicing 4 oz of carrot and onion, 2 oz of turnip, and 1 oz of leek.
Chop 1/4 oz each of parsley and celery if in season.
Slice 1 lemon.
Add 1 tablespoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 6 cloves, 4 allspice, 1 inch cinnamon stick, 2 blades mace, 1/2 cup oil, 1 pint vinegar, and 1 pint water, then mix thoroughly.
Insert pieces of fat pork into the beef, about 2 inches apart, using a larding needle or a carving knife to make holes.
Marinate
Place the beef in a deep bowl with the marinade and let it stand in a cool place for 2 to 10 days, turning it daily.
Cook
Put the beef and marinade in a deep pot, turn occasionally over heat until browned, then cover with hot stock or water and simmer.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Beef + porktop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together5,669 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-ethylphenol (must).
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Carrot + turniptop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together8,001 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Beef + oniontop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,091 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beans + carrottop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,441 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Onion + carrottop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together21,599 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Round of beef
- Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender through long slow cooking.
- Fat pork
- Melts during cooking, adding moisture and richness to the lean beef.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity to the marinade, helping to tenderize the meat and brighten flavor.
- Oil
- Carries the spice aromas through the marinade and adds fat to the meat.
- Button onions
- Add sweetness and aroma that deepen as they cook into the sauce.
The step that matters
Brown the beef before adding liquid. Browning over heat builds color and roasted flavor through Maillard reactions. Skipping or rushing it leaves the surface pale and the finished sauce dull in taste.
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pork, onion, beans, carrot, turnip, vinegar):
- Avocadobetter flavor fit
- Cherrybetter flavor fit
- Applebetter flavor fit
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pork, onion, beans, carrot, turnip, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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